Friday, April 21, 2006

Now that I'm ready to actually build my bot blocker for commercial purposes it seems like it's next to near impossible to find any quality PHP programmers, at least none that aren't already booked thru 2010, to help build the damn thing.

For those thinking it's going to be some simple piddly-assed fire-and-forget script think again as we're talking a product of much larger scope, including a centralized server component. The scope is more that just the "bot blocking" that I rant about here as it will be a complete crawler management and protection system. It will allow webmasters to manage access to their site without having to deal with the technical aspects, nor keep up with the latest crawlers. Additionally, there is a security component that will harden web sites against a variety of exploits.

I was prepared to just pay someone to convert it to PHP, or even be an equity partner if they wanted some of the back end action, but it's starting to look like I may just have to roll up my sleeves and do it all myself. That's going to throw a nasty monkey wrench into the time frame as there is still pending R&D that needs to be done.

So much to be done, so little time, and a planned summer BETA release not looking so good at the moment.

Bill,I have a history in Perl, and a thorough knowledge of PHP. Transcoding one to the other will be quite simple for me.

I have a strong background in database programming. I do think if you are talking about central repositries and such that the data storage will become quite considerable - and this will be very important.

I also have an idea that would make th e crawler-scum bots work to your advantage instead of the people behind them.

By shear chance I am between contracts as of right now. Would be happy to discuss further - and would definitely be interested in an equity share arrangement.